Rugby World Cup warm-up’s: Ireland rest Healy & Kearney against England

Published 3 September 2015 | By grootblousmile

IrelandIreland have left out prop Cian Healy and fullback Rob Kearney from the side to play England in their final World Cup warm-up match.

The 2 sides will go head-to-head at Twickenham on Saturday.

Joe Schmidt, the Ireland coach, has decided to give Healy more time to recover following the loosehead’s long-standing neck problems.

Healy only returned to full training this week, following neck surgery in May, and at one stage, was doubtful even to make Ireland’s final 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup.

Jack McGrath starts in his place.

Meanwhile, centre Keith Earls was not included in the team named on Thursday by New Zealander Schmidt, with the midfielder still undergoing concussion protocols after suffering a heavy blow in Six Nations champions Ireland’s 10 / 16 warm-up defeat to Wales in Dublin last weekend.

Simon Zebo replaces Rob Kearney at fullback, with Dave Kearney, Rob’s brother, in on the left wing.

In the pack, the 1st-choice loose forwards of Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip are reunited for the 1st time since the Six Nations, with senior halfbacks Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton also in the starting side.

Both sides will be looking for a morale-boosting win ahead of the Rugby World Cup, with tournament hosts England beaten 25 / 20 by France in Paris in their last warm-up match.

England open the Rugby World Cup against Fiji at Twickenham on 18 September.

 

Ireland: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O’Brien, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 Paul O’Connell (Captain), 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Tadhg Furlong, 18 Nathan White, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Chris Henry, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Darren Cave.

 

Date: Saturday 5 September
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kick-Off: 15:30 SA Time (14:30 BST, 13:30 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Romaine Poite (France), Leighton Hodges (Wales)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

 

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2 Responses to Rugby World Cup warm-up’s: Ireland rest Healy & Kearney against England

  • 1

    Scrumdown on 4 September 2015 at 12:14 pm

    I note with some concern that the NH teams (plus the Aus Mob) are still having “practice” matches with only 2 weeks until the tournament starts, yet the Boks are content to just keep to the practice field.

    I certainly hope HM and Co have the recipe right.

  • 2

    MacroPolo on 4 September 2015 at 12:29 pm

    @ Scrumdown:
    Yep, I also find it questionable that we go without warm up games, other than Arg and the Namibian “game”.

    I also wonder if there is financial reasoning to it, as the all blacks have followed a similar preparation and a warm up between the two foes in Europe would have made sense theoretically, but I don’t know if its that simple to simply just organize such a game if you look at tv rights and such.

    I know there are other warm up matches in Europe, but those are mostly between European teams, or between Amateur teams, so there is either domestic or little interest.

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